The hero of Kingsley Amis’s comedy is Stanley Duke. Attractive, prosperous and happily remarried, Stanley leads a life that is positively enviable — that is, until it becomes apparent that his teenage son, Steve, is going mad.

          It isn’t that Steve suddenly tears up a copy of Bellow’s HERZOG, or cranks his stereo to ear-shattering levels… that’s normal. It’s his pursuit by cosmic forces that concerns his father. Stanley’s confrontation with his son’s madness give Amis the opportunity to pull off a comic masterpiece.